Six national Democrats have now declared themselves effectively to the right of the president on the fence being built to secure Israel. Senators Schumer, Clinton, Corzine, Lautenberg, and Wyden, as well as Senator Lieberman, have all sent messages of support to the Jewish state on this matter, while the administration has wavered. “Like all countries, Israel has an unqualified right to defend itself when threatened by violence — a right every other nation including ours takes as a given. The building of the fence is nothing short of an attempt to do that.” So read the text of a letter organized by Mr. Schumer and signed Tuesday by all of the above-mentioned Democrats, except for Mr. Lieberman, who made his own statement of support a day earlier. “We should be hesitant to interrupt the Israelis’ building of a security wall until there is the clear action by the Palestinian leadership…to stop terrorism from the Palestinian areas,” Mr. Lieberman said on Monday.

At the same time, the Bush administration has been coming up with different pejorative ways to refer to Israel’s fence. A “problem”the president called it last week. Perhaps feeling the pressure on his right side coming from a crowd usually on his left, the president has moderated his rhetoric, downgrading the fence to a “sensitive issue” as of Tuesday. While it’s difficult to doubt President Bush’s commitment to Israeli security, what the American people have come to admire about this president is his plainspoken ability to articulate right from wrong. No reason to sit on the fence.